The new Loropetalum cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventor, Yuji Suzuki, in Kawaguchi City, Saitama, Japan. The objective of the breeding program was to produce new Loropetalum varieties with better foliage color and improved flowering for ornamental commercial applications. The cross resulting in this new variety was made during Apr. 2, 2006.
The seed parent is the commercial variety referred to as Loropetalum ‘Kurobijin’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 23,176. The pollen parent is the unpatented, propriety variety referred to as Loropetalum ‘5-17’. The new variety was selected by the inventor in a group of seedlings resulting from the 2006 crossing, in a nursery in Kawaguchi City, Saitama, Japan.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar was performed by softwood cuttings. This was first performed at a nursery in Kawaguchi City, Saitama, Japan, in 2011 and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type in 5 successive generations.